Just Listen
by Yellow Sunflower
Summary: Cody wakes up with guilt on his conscience, and this brings him to Noah's house at seven in the morning. What happened in between that led him there?


**And this only took about 3 months of procrastination and bad timing.  
Of course, I don't own Total Drama Island or the characters, but if I did that would be so freaking cool.**

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* * *

__He would never be awake this early_, Cody thought as he looked at his watch: 7:05 AM. _And he has so many brothers and sisters… I don't want to bother him_. This is what Cody told himself as he stood outside Noah's house on a cool June morning. He told himself to just get out of there that instant, but still his feet remained planted by some unknown force, perhaps his desperation.

He would never be awake this early

He kicked a pebble in front of the driveway, unsure of what to do. He walked halfway up the driveway, and then changed his mind at the last second and came back to the edge of the driveway, repeating this process several times. He subconsciously bought time as he studied Noah's front lawn, noticing how green the grass was, and how beautiful the dew was, weighing down each individual blade. Finally deciding that there was no other possible way that he could stall any longer, Cody finally walked up the driveway the fourth time, just to prove to himself that Noah was not awake.

Noah was, in fact, awake. He was standing in the kitchen in a blue bathrobe with a fresh brewed cup of coffee. He deeply inhaled the coffee and sighed. The space around him was, for once, quiet. With his nine brothers and sisters, it was hard to ever get a moment of peace and quiet. But these summer mornings, when no one else was awake, Noah could get that one moment of peace that was so rare. He leaned back on the kitchen counter and closed his eyes, listening to the sweet nothingness…

…when sudden knocking sounded through the house. Noah's eyes snapped open as his quiet was suddenly interrupted. He peered at the front door, expecting more knocking, but nothing followed. Maybe he just imagined it. Noah stared at the front door for a few more moments. Yeah, he had just imagined it, he thought as he reassumed his nonchalant position against the counter.

But then, there was the knocking again. Noah rolled his eyes. He put his coffee mug on the table and folded his arms. Glaring at the front door, Noah sent waves of irritation towards the unwelcome visitor. If he waited long enough, this person would get frustrated and go away. If he just waited long enough…

The person knocked a third time. This time, Noah heard the unmistakable whimper of his baby sister coming from her room upstairs. Noah's heart skipped a beat, fearing his newborn sister would wake up. He ran to the front door, robe trailing behind him like a cape, and flung open the door.

Before seeing who it was, Noah urged the visitor in a loud whisper, "_**SHUT UP!**_" He went back into the house and looked up the stairs to see if his sister would wake up. After a long stretch of silence, he figured that she would be okay and quietly crept back to the front door. He faced Cody, who had a very confused expression on his face.

"Cody?" Noah stepped outside and closed the door behind him, his expression now mirroring Cody's confusion. "What are you doing here? It's seven o'clock in the morning!"

The confusion was replaced by sheepishness. "Yeah, I know…" Cody said lamely. He looked up at the sky awkwardly and placed a hand on the back of his neck. After a few seconds, Cody looked uncomfortably at his feet, "I was in the neighborhood… and I thought… I thought I would stop by and say hi."

Noah sighed and pinched the skin between his eyebrows. "Cody, honey, I love you, but again I say… it's seven o'clock in the morning. Now I enjoy your surprise visits and all, but I don't think that two minutes after sunrise is the best time."

"…I told them…" Cody muttered in a barely audible whisper.

"What?"

Cody didn't repeat himself at first. And then, "I told my parents, Noah."

"What? Why would you do that? We agreed that we would tell them only if it were absolutely necessary –"

"But, I –"

"And that would be never! You know that nothing good can come from this, right?"

"Could you just listen –" But Noah went on, not letting Cody get a word in edgewise. He agreed with Noah on a few points, but he had no idea what Cody was going through. Guilt was not something that Cody could deal with easily, and he couldn't keep something this big from his parents. He had always had a good relationship with them. Well, _had_.

"You're not listening to me!" Cody finally interrupted. Noah fell silent, but the frown did not leave his face.

"You're not saying anything," Noah pointed out.

"I know," Cody replied. But he still did not speak. Noah waited, but Cody still remained silent. Now birds were beginning to chirp and sing, the sense of peace their songs brought conflicting with the scene that was occurring on Noah's front step.

"Cody, please tell me what happened," Noah prompted in a much softer tone, "or I will go back inside, and close the door in your face."

"Don't," Cody started. "Okay. I couldn't sleep last night because I was feeling guilty about not telling my parents about us. You know that I was raised Catholic, and I just couldn't keep lying. So I woke both of them up at five in the morning, which looking back wasn't such a great idea, they were pretty mad that I woke them. We all sat down in the kitchen, and I told them, 'Mom, Dad, I'm gay.'" Cody stopped. He tried to keep his breath as even as he could, but Noah could hear the slight fluctuation in it. "You couldn't imagine their faces, Noah."

* * *

One thousand pounds had been lifted off of Cody's chest. The words reverberated off of the kitchen walls. He heard them being said, but was he the one who said them? It didn't matter now. He was being totally and completely open and honest with his parents, and this took so much off of his shoulders.

But he hadn't taken into account their judgment. His mother stood in shocked silence, while his father's face grew redder and redder. Cody, starting to regret bringing his sexuality to his parents' attention, sunk lower and lower into his chair. All previous feelings of relief disappeared as quickly as they had come.

"Cody, I know… that I did not just hear you say that you were a homosexual," Cody's father growled in an almost murderously calm way. Cody's mother still said nothing, though Cody thought he could see tears forming in her eyes, which was nearly enough to make him cry. He looked down, ashamed, not wanting to meet his father's beady eyes.

But instead of losing it, Cody took a deep breath to stabilize himself and said firmly, "Yes, I did."

His mother sobbed. _So the tears were real_, Cody thought.

"Cody, the Lord lists homosexuality as a wicked act, and lists its offenders as those who will _not_ inherit the kingdom of God! There is _nothing_ in the Bible that accepts this! Do you think that in heaven there is toleration for this kind of immorality, this kind of _diversity _at the Table of God?" Cody's father screamed. And Cody's mother quietly sobbed. A thought occurred to Cody: _I forgot Dad was a total homophobe._

"Jesus _himself_ condemns homosexuality, saying that in the beginning God made man and woman for _each other_! Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God made men for each other! This kind of behavior violates all kinds of natural law; it's just not natural!"

Cody said nothing, not standing up for himself, not begging for forgiveness. Nothing.

"You do realize that if you don't repent against you immorality, you _will_ go to hell." This was a punch in the gut for Cody. In thinking about homosexuality in general (never mind his own), he had always felt that people who were gay were simply born that way. End of story. Now to find out that he was going to go to hell, to spend eternity in suffering, merely because he was born with different genes… To Cody, that was scary.

"Please, Paul," his mother finally spoke. "He doesn't know," she spoke softly, as if Cody weren't there. "He didn't know. Please forgive him… God is a forgiving God, remember?"

He ignored her. "Who is it?" he asked his son.

Cody looked up at his father, thinking that he heard the quiet, almost inaudible, whisper incorrectly. "What?"

"Who's the boy who poisoned your morals?"

Ouch. That stung. Cody might as well tell him the whole truth. "Noah," he stated firmly.

The scowl became more fixed upon Cody's father's face. He didn't like Noah very much. He was somewhat like a character foil to his son; Noah's sarcasm to Cody's optimism, Noah's insolent glare to Cody's sunny smile. Just that the two boys were total opposites made Cody's father inclined to automatically dislike Noah. Now to find out that Noah was a little more than Cody's friend made him downright furious.

"I knew it. I never liked that kid," his father said, more to himself. "And are you proud of yourself for going against God's law?" Cody looked at his father, and it almost seemed like he was hoping he'd answer yes. It was like his father _hoped to God_ that he would assert his wrongdoings, so he could lash out in another furious rant, bringing up all of his biblical knowledge on the subject.

But Cody couldn't give his father a straight answer. Of course he didn't want to say that he was proud, because, for the moment being, he was certainly _not _proud. He was the furthest thing from proud right now. But he wasn't going to back down, no matter how afraid he was. "I love him…" he finally said, and even though he had never revealed this to Noah, he knew it was true.

"Please forgive him," his mother started again.

"I cannot forgive him if he does not want to be forgiven!"

"'The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him,'" his mother quoted a Bible verse.

"I, nor God, can forgive him if he does not want to be forgiven," his father repeated, snarling, letting it known to everyone in that room that he was not someone you would want to argue with. He turned to Cody now. "Do you understand me? _God will not forgive you_ if you are not sorry."

* * *

"They kicked me out," Cody finally said.

…Speechless. Noah was, for once in his life, speechless. Cody's eyes had a watery glaze as they looked into Noah's, pleading for some sympathy, pleading for any comfort.

But he couldn't give Cody sympathy. He couldn't imagine himself in Cody's shoes. His parents had never questioned his sexuality before. Once Noah told his family that he was gay, that was that. No questions followed. Now his boyfriend and best friend had done the same thing with less than ideal results. If it weren't so illogical and irrational, Noah would have admitted that he felt sort of guilty that his parents had accepted _him_, and Cody's parents, who were supposed to be compassionate and loving Catholics, rejected the idea of their son being gay and had kicked him out of his home. There was no way to react to this small flame of anger towards Cody's parents. At least, none that would make either of the two feel better.

No, Noah couldn't give Cody sympathy. But he would try to give him comfort.

Noah pulled Cody into a warm hug, not knowing what else to do. It seemed to have worked, because wrapped his arms around Noah's neck in what might have been appreciation, or agony, or anything. One tear rolled onto Noah's shoulder until Cody told himself that he was not going to cry.

* * *

**I just want to say that I don't believe anything that Cody's dad said. I went online and found Catholic standpoints on gay marriage and this is what I found. I am a Catholic, but I don't believe these things.**


End file.
